Isabella waited somewhat nervously in the empty classroom on the fourth floor. She had hurried to eat lunch and scamper upstairs to the classroom. Her classroom. It was empty of almost everything except a desk for the teacher and a series of smaller desks arranged in neat rows. The walls were similarly bare, with only one picture upon them. Isabella looked at its occupant, a smiling, round-faced woman wearing a goldenrod colored dress with a black cap. In her hands she held a small golden cup with a badger engraved upon it.
Isabella tapped her wand nervously against her hand, finally stopping when it began to shower green sparks and threatened to catch her robes on fire.
Finally there was the scuffle of feet outside the door as the first-years lined up outside. Isabella watched the clock tick slowly by until finally the hour hand was pointed directly at the one. Then she strode over the the door and opened it.
The first-years were tiny! Isabella could never remember being that tiny. Then again, now that she thought about it, Adalina was almost ten years old and she was very small. The eleven-year-olds looked up at her and then back at the door expectantly.
"Come in," she smiled at them and stepped aside, holding the door open. Some of them were looking very nervous. They filed inside, looking around with a mixture of anticipation and fear. Isabella waited until the last one had passed her, then gently closed the door.
"Wands away, for now!" she ordered as some of her students began to pull out wands.
"Where's Professor McGonagall?" a Gryffindor boy asked.
"Name, please?" she demanded, going to the front of the room and sitting on her desk, pulling the roster toward her.
"John Chestworthy," the boy said, sounding annoyed. "My brother Alfred told us Professor McGonagall taught Transfiguration."
"She teaches second- through seventh- years," Isabella told him, carefully making a check mark next to 'Chestworthy, John'.
"Well then, who's teaching us?" a girl with curly blond hair asked.
"Name?"
"Suzanne Fife," the girl told her. Isabella made a mark next to 'Fife, Suzanne' on her roster.
"I am your teacher this year, Suzanne," Isabella told the Gryffindor.
"But you're a student!" a Slytherin boy with black hair objected.
"Name?"
"Come off it, this has to be some sort of joke..."
"Name?" Isabella was getting annoyed by now.
"Jeremy Spike, but I want to-"
"Thank you, Jeremy," Isabella shouted over the protests beginning on every side now. Their voices died down, but they continued to look over her suspiciously.
"You may address me as Miss Isabella, Teacher, or simply Miss, is that understood?" Isabella said firmly. She had not been anticipating such resistance and now realized she needed a stronger stance. "If you have any further questions, you may speak to Professor McGonagall at a later time."
"You can bet my father will be hearing about this," Jeremy Spike grumbled. Isabella paused and her lips twitched involuntarily. Jeremy had sounded just like another Slytherin boy Isabella knew and, frankly, despised.
"Now then, if we are all quite happy," Isabella said, raising her eyebrow to dare any further comments. "Welcome to Transfiguration. Some would say Transfiguration is the most complex and most demanding of the magics, but with hard work and a little practice, it can also be the most rewarding."
Isabella moved to the front row of desks where Suzanne sat. The girl had about three feather quills sitting on her desk. Isabella placed her wand on these.
"Avifors," she ordered them. They trembled and transformed into three bluebirds that chirped and, with a rustle of wings, took flight. The girls oohed and awed and even the boys looked mildly impressed.
"Transfiguration will be easiest between two similar objects," Isabella informed them, moving back to her desk as the birds swooped along beside her. "For example, a quill and a bird. Is everyone writing this down?" The first-years jumped and scrambled for parchment and quills. Isabella pointed her wand at Suzanne's desk and the birds meekly returned. As soon as they landed on the desk, they returned to their form as humble quill pens.
Quills began to scratch feverishly. All except one.
"Jeremy, do you wish me to repeat what I have just said?" Isabella asked him.
"I don't think I need to take notes until I get a real teacher," he sneered. The entire class fell silent and glanced nervously at the two.
"If that is how you feel, Jeremy, I will make sure to let Professor Snape know," Isabella told him. "Now, for those of you taking notes, there are harder forms of Transfiguration. For example, inmorphication. This involves forcing another human to take on the appearance and manner of the animal he is most like. A strong minded wizard or witch is quite capable of breaking out of an inmorphication on his or her own. Does anyone feel up to demonstrating?" John Chestworthy's arm looked like it might dislocate itself he was so eager.
Isabella had him stand at the front of the room. He turned into quite a lovely little dog with floppy paws and a long, wagging tail. The girls once again crooned and the boys laughed a little. Isabella calmly transformed him back into his original state, thanking her Uncle Taddeo she knew how to do so.
"Thank you, John. Back to your seat," she told him. John bounded to his seat, looking thrilled and little bit scared. The boys around him congratulated him and patted him on the back.
"This year, you will be learning the simplest of Transfigurations," Isabella said loudly, interrupting them. The students all immediately went back to scribbling their notes. Still, Jeremy wrote nothing. "That of turning inanimate objects into other inanimate objects. We will begin with turning a match into a needle."
Isabella opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out a box of matches. She placed one on the table and lay the tip of her wand gently upon it. Tapping the match two times she said very clearly, "Postulo". The match lengthened a little a became very silver and pointed. Isabella held up the needle for the class to see.
"Tap the match twice with your wand and then say, 'Postulo'," Isabella ordered them all. Then she went around the room and gave each student a matchstick.
As she had expected, no one managed to turn their match into a needle. She did praise a Gryffindor named Emily Sutton for succeeding in making the end of her match silver and a little pointed.
The next class was much the same, save that the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were too timid to question her authority. Also, a Hufflepuff girl named Sophia Hall set her match on fire and Isabella had to calmly put out it out before it caught the hysterical girl's desk on fire. In addition, one of the Ravenclaw's managed to force his match into something that looked like a cross between the desired needle and the matchstick.
"What's your name?" she asked the boy.
"Benjy Finwick, miss," the tiny Ravenclaw squeaked. Isabella was stopped in her tracks for a second, but she kept her face blank. Benjy Finwick had been killed and mutilated by Death Eaters in the First Wizarding War. Clearly this boy was some relation: a grandson or great-nephew. Isabella nodded to the boy and held up his half-needle for the entire class to see.
After her students had left, Isabella sat on her desk and thought about what needed to be different for next time.
Clearly the students had an issue with being taught by another student. She could counteract that by wearing her own clothes rather than the school uniform, which would only serve to associate her with the student body. Isabella had absolutely no reservations with telling Professor McGonagall what had happened today. She was, however, nervous about telling Professor Snape, Jeremy Spike's head of house.
Isabella would have to ask Professor McGonagall if there was someway she could award or penalize the students by their house points. If only she could take away a point or two every time one of them was disrespectful! She wouldn't abuse the points, honestly, she just needed some authority over her students so that they would behave.